As Congress takes up comprehensive immigration reform, House Republicans have insisted the U.S. needs increased border security before even considering earned citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

However, arrests at the border have dropped dramatically in Arizona to their lowest level in 19 years, even though more agents are deployed there than ever before:

The agency reported that apprehensions dropped to 124,631, a drop of more than 43 percent in the past two years and more than 82 percent since the highest mark in 2000.

Meanwhile, the number of agents stationed in Arizona rose to its highest level, with more than 5,100 in the state:

There is no clear relationship between the 21,000 agents patrolling the border and increased security. While the U.S. spends $18 billion on immigration enforcement, border crossings are at a 40-year low with net undocumented immigration at or below zero.

The Arizona Daily Sun recently warned against sidelining immigration reform with too many prerequisites for border security, arguing, “it is no longer justifiable to hold immigration reform hostage to an undefined “secure” border because of federal inaction.” The Arizona Republic wrote, “The plan devotes a great deal of emphasis to border security, promising more resources for an effort that already has seen years of extensive expenditures on infrastructure, technology and Border Patrol agents.”

Even Republicans, like Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), admit that the border is more secure than ever before. Meanwhile, there is more than enough economic and historic evidence for why the debate needs to focus on citizenship, and not border enforcement.

According to a new Washington Post poll, 70 percent of Americans support a path to citizenship in comprehensive immigration reform, including 60 percent of Republicans. Those results are in line with a slew of polls showing that earned citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants is a popular policy.

But a funny thing happened when Republicans were asked an identical question about citizenship with Obama’s name attached. Republicans hated the idea: Support dropped from 60 percent to just 39 percent.

Although the poll covered several topics, immigration reform showed the most dramatic difference:

Republicans have long opposed policies only after Obama endorsed them. For instance, GOP lawmakers backed away from the individual health care mandate they supported throughout the 1990s and as late as 2009 after Obama included it in his health care reform principles. According to a Reuters/Ispos poll, strong majorities of Republicans back key provisions of Obamacare, but hate the law because Obama’s name is on it.

However, immigration reform with citizenship is not uniquely Obama’s idea, since Republican leaders have also embraced it in the Senate’s bipartisan immigration framework.